The head of the IOF’s Military Intelligence Directorate warned on Sunday that ISIL’s weakening means an Iranian and Hezbollah supremacy, which is bad to ‘Israel’.

“While the Islamic State terror group was weakening and its so-called caliphate was shrinking, this also meant Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, were making gains and this would not be good for Israel,” according to a report by Haaretz.

Speaking at a closed conference at Tel Aviv University, Maj-Gen Herzl Halevi acknowledged that ISIL was suffering due to the high casualty rate among its members fighting in the war and the financial difficulties it faces, however, assuring that it was “building up its forces and gaining strength in some respect.”

Halevi argued that there was much to be optimistic about vis-a-vis Israeli relations with regional countries, like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. He said that ‘Israel’ and “the Sunni countries have common interests; what we do with [these ties] is another question, but this is Israel’s biggest opportunity in the coming years.”

Over the past week, the Zionist entity had been suffering from a wave of wildfires, some of which were deliberately set, according to Israeli security officials. The fires began last Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes and damaging or destroying thousands of residences, businesses and vehicles.

Some in the Zionist security and political establishment warned of a ‘new kind of terrorism’, or an “arson intifada”, while others said that terming it such was an exaggeration.

In his talk, Halevi said that ‘Israel’ would “find a way to deal with the fires, but then there will be new inventions; it will come in waves and we need to be prepared.”